winter of life

And I began to feel in the boys a curious, wary, bewildered despair, as though they were now settling in for the long, hard winter of life.

From "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

We are both in the winter of life, time's uses are almost ended, and all that is blissful now are the memories of the past.

From The Memories of Fifty Years Containing Brief Biographical Notices of Distinguished Americans, and Anecdotes of Remarkable Men; Interspersed with Scenes and Incidents Occurring during a Long Life of Observation Chiefly Spent in the Southwest by William Henry Sparks

One can see in them the friendship and sentiments of the winter of life.

From Empress Josephine An historical sketch of the days of Napoleon by L. (Luise) Mühlbach

She had felt the variable temper of society, and there was a presentiment in the heart, of receding flatteries and the winter of life.

From Stories by American Authors (Volume 4) by Constance Fenimore Woolson

In the rock's gloomy crevice the bright holly grows: The ivy waves fresh o'er the withering rose, And the evergreen love of a virtuous wife Soothes the roughness of care—cheers the winter of life.

From From John O'Groats to Land's End by Robert Naylor